it's getting hot in hurr

Santa Barbara bouldering poster boy, and fellow Owl Tor aficionado, Brian Spiering peeped these photos of our area's iconic bouldering locale, West Camino Cielo, up in flames last night. At about 6:00 yesterday evening things got bright up in the hills behind our domiciles, prompting Brian's and my neighborhood to be on alert for evacuation. We were spared those orders by about 4 blocks but tonight could be spicier. I hate to see forest burn, though I'm aware this is healthy and necessary to our preserved lands. Brian is way more pumped. With the foliage out of the way he's expecting this to open up some new crags. We shall see.

photos courtesy Brian Spiering, Amerian Riviera Bouldering

I don't know which is worse

I will never try to put up a Yosemite speed record. That's right, everyone out there who was nervous can relax. But that's not to say such feats aren't rad. Being a friend of mine, I can attest that Hans Florine is in fact rad. So I was psyched to hear he and Yuji had made a bid for another speed record on the Nose. And in usual Climbing Magazine fashion, this report sucks:

Florine-Hirayama Nearly Regain Nose Record climbing.com - June 29, 2008

Eclipsed only by this article's suckiness:

On Speed in Yosemite: Catching up to the Hubers (yeah, that's really the title) UKclimbing.com - June 29, 2008

U.S. Olympic track and field trials start today

ESPN has highlighted some American dudes to watch for:

men to watch at U.S. Olympic track and field trials

espn.com Olympic coverage - June 27, 2008

rad climbing video

Sonnie Trotter sending Cobra Crack

Steve McClure cranks Rhapsody

McClure bags Third Ascent of Rhapsody (E11 7a)
climbing.com - June 20, 2008

"McClure tied in to lead for the third time on the afternoon of his fourth day on the route. “I thought I could detect a degree of nervousness about his climbing … this seemed to pass once he was properly committed on the runout, and he was totally focused,” says Keith Sharples, who was photographing McClure on his send. “When he got to the top, he looked over at me and said something like, ‘Man, that was a close one – nearly didn’t make that.’”" - Audra Ord

crankin' scary style

Sonnie Trotter Repeats Rhapsody
climbing.com - June 10, 2008

"Writing on his blog on June 6, he said, “Rhapsody may be an eliminate, but…there is a tremendous amount of logic behind what Dave did, and that deserves a pile of respect, I think…. The only rule is don’t bail left to the arete (a cop-out), stay on the face, and the line is very much obvious. And yes, very hard. Dave presented us all with a challenge. A challenge to climb this sequence of holds, and until someone does that challenge will always remain. I could do the ‘direct version’ and the ‘cop-out’ version, but I still didn't climb Rhapsody, and I would not be truly satisfied.”"

also, Sonnie Trotter's blog

nothing to do with anything

... but rad none the less.